Teamfight Tactics New Items – Patch 9.18 & 9.19 TFT PBE Patch Notes

As per usual, we may have only received the Teamfight Tactics 9.17 patch notes this morning, and heck the darn thing isn’t even live yet, but the cycle must go on. Riot has already started updating the PBE with changes inbound for TFT Patch 9.17b or TFT Patch 9.18. We aren’t sure what’s due to arrive in what patch, but we expect the bigger stuff to come alongside 9.18. The B patches are usually just balance updates.

As always, a special thanks to Surrender@20 for being so on top of these changes. In general, we corral these notes together from the TFT subreddit, S@20, our own experiences on the PBE, and from official Riot Twitter accounts.

TFT Patch 9.19 PBE Patch Notes

New Items

In short, there are eight new items made using a new item component, Infinity Edge’s recipe has been changed, and Sword of the Divine is being removed.

TFT Update: Powerful Punch-Ups

BY TUMMERS AND RIOT BEERNANA

Sparring Gloves have magically appeared in the Convergence like mana from heaven (or RNG from minions) to provide you and your team with all of your critical strike and dodging needs. These gloves combine with all existing item components to make eight new items and a reworked Infinity Edge. Sword of the Divine has been removed; its recipe and Infinity Edge’s one now create two more new items. They’ll all join the roster with patch 9.18.

TL;DR:

1 new item component

8 new items made from that component + Infinity Edge

1 Sword of the Divine removed

2 new items created from old Infinity Edge and Sword of the Divine recipes

Here are the details:

Sparring Gloves

+10% Dodge chance – “Float like a butterfly”

+10% Crit chance – “Sting like a bee”

We didn’t want to disrupt the balance of offensive and defensive options, so we made Sparring Gloves capable of either: If the finished item is offensive in nature, the statline shifts to +20% Crit, if it is defensive, it shifts to +20% Dodge.

Thief’s Gloves

Recipe: Sparring Gloves + Sparring Gloves

A champion holding Thief’s Gloves can’t hold other items except temporary ones gained by this item. Thief’s Gloves cannot be given to a champion that already holds an item. On round start, gain two temporary items. Their quality is based on your player level.

For those that like items with their items.

Hand of Justice

Recipe: Sparring Gloves + Tear of the Goddess

At the beginning of the planning phase, the wearer randomly gains either 40% increased damage or 40 life on hit until end of round.

For those that aren’t great with decisions.

Infinity Edge

Recipe: Sparring Gloves + BF Sword

Crits deal 200% more damage.

When you want to crit, but like….even more so.

Arcane Gauntlet

Recipe: Sparring Gloves + Needlessly Large Rod

Your abilities can critically strike.

When your ASol dreams of being Draven.

Quicksilver

Recipe: Sparring Gloves + Negatron Cloak

Prevents the next crowd control effect applied to the wearer. Refreshes every 5 seconds.

Can’t touch this, ba na na na.

Iceborne Gauntlet

Recipe: Sparring Gloves + Chain Vest

On dodge, create an expandable 30% attack speed slow zone.

Just how expandable? No one knows.

Backhand

Recipe: Sparring Gloves + Giant’s Belt

The wearer starts combat with a spell shield. Stun the enemy that breaks the shield for a long time.

An eye for an eye, in item form.

Repeating Crossbow

Recipe: Sparring Gloves + Recurve Bow

When the wearer dies, Repeating Crossbow passes to a new ally and they gain an additional 20% Crit chance and 20% Attack Speed. This stacks with each pass of the item.

YOU get a Repeating Crossbow, YOU get a Repeating Crossbow, YOU get a Repeating Crossbow!!!!!!!!!

Mittens

Recipe: Sparring Gloves + Golden Spatula

Extra 10% Crit chance and 10% Dodge chance. Wearer is also a Yordle

Tastes purple.

Since Infinity Edge has a new recipe and Sword of the Divine has been removed, we’ve added two more new items in their place:

Lord’s Edge

Recipe: BF Sword + BF Sword

A champion holding Lord’s Edge can’t hold other items except temporary ones gained by this item. Lord’s Edge cannot be given to a champion that already holds an item. On takedown, gain a BF Sword for the remainder of the round.

For those doing the math at home, yes a champion can hold three Lord’s Edges by the end of the round.

Another new item can drop, but this one’s a little different. Neeko’s Help is a consumable item that you can place on a champion. When you do, Neeko’s Help is consumed and a 1 star copy of the champion is instantly made and added to your bench. If your bench is full, Neeko will just pop right back off, so no tricky business! Use Neeko to complete a 3 star champion, or to quickly clone a powerful Legendary champ. The choice is yours!

TFT New Item Distribution System

RiotMort has revealed that the developers are updating how item drops work! In short there are now Common, Uncommon, and Shiny Rare boxes with their own loot tables which include champions, items, and gold. Mort says the team will be tightening up the breadth of possibilities. Full post below!

Hey folks, Mort here to talk about an exciting change coming to Teamfight Tactics. The item system is a key part of the game that creates a ton of cool decision points and exciting moments. But we’ve also heard your feedback that how we distribute items over the course of the game is not as good as it could be. In past communications we’ve been clear we’re not going to just give everyone the same amount of items as that leads to a flat and repetitive experience where you know exactly what to expect every game. We want there to be multiple paths to victory in TFT and one of the ways we want to do that is by keeping the item system variable. However, we’ve taken a look at how we can make improvements and have some exciting stuff coming to PBE.

What is changing?

First off, you’ll notice that instead of just one type of box, there are now Common, Uncommon, and Shiny Rare boxes that can drop, each with their own distinct loot tables. Now when you get a higher quality box, you can get excited about what’s inside, and have a bit more expectations about what outcomes are possible.

Additionally, there are new drop possibilities. Items and gold can still drop just like before, but we’ve also added Champions and “Neeko’s Help” (name pending). Champions that drop from the boxes will be added directly to your bench. (Note: If your bench is full, the units are just directly converted to gold instead. No tricky business with the bench and board!) We’re hoping that getting champs will pull you into unique build paths. And if not, you can simply sell them. Lastly, a new consumable item “Neeko’s Help” can also drop. This item allows you to make a 1 copy of any unit which then consumes the item. This should make your dreams of getting that 3 champion just a little easier.

Now I already know what you’re thinking. “This sounds like a bunch of RNG!” Well it is and it isn’t. Behind the scenes we’ve done a LOT to control how we distribute the boxes, as well as what’s inside the boxes. Our goal is that games have a lot of variation, but that they also have some degree of fairness to them. So the amount of boxes are much more controlled across the entire game. The difference between the best and worst cases is now much more narrow than before.

For example, on live after first three PVE rounds you can get 9 gold & 0 items, 3 gold & 1 item, all the way up to 6 items. It’s a pretty wide spread. In the new system, after the first three PVE rounds every player is guaranteed at least 2 Uncommon boxes, then 1-3 additional boxes. In addition, the total number of boxes and items across the entire game is much more controlled. If you start off slow, there are more boxes and items coming. We also prevent the most extreme and wacky cases (no gold boxes before stage 2-6, no more than 3 gold boxes per person max, etc). There are a ton of tuning levers and controls in here to try to keep things fair and competitive, while also being varied and exciting. This also makes it easier for us in the future to make adjustments if our first values aren’t correct.

Why is it changing?

Again, we think variety is important to the long term health of the game. One of the things that keeps Teamfight Tactics replayable is that every game is different and you experience new and exciting combinations. That being said, we need to achieve that goal in a way that feels fair and fun for everyone. We’re hoping this is a big step in that direction. With even more possible combinations, the variety should increase. But this way it’s more fair across the length of the game. No more 1 item 3 gold into 5 gold starts while your opponent has 6 items.

Now you may get 2 items, a Kennen, and a Neeko to start, while your opponent gets 3 items and 2 gold. There are lots of unique possibilities and you can use them to your advantage to succeed. An early 2 star Kennen could for sure outperform 1 more item. The possibilities and paths to victory should be numerous now. We think that’s better for the game, and frankly more fun!

This is also why we’re talking about it now. If you have a PBE account give it a try, then let us know what you think (I know it’s tempting to assume without trying it). If we’re wrong, and it feels worse, then we won’t ship it. We’re committed to making TFT as fun and high quality as possible, and we think this does it, but we’re not too proud to admit if we’re wrong.

When do we expect the changes to go through?

If all goes well, and the change is feeling good, we’re hoping to ship it as part of our very large 9.18 patch. It will go out with the new item component, as well as some changes to the XP curve to make up for the slightly inflated rewards. This will be our biggest patch of the set, and should really shake things up for the better.

Again, looking forward to all your feedback, and I hope you keep enjoying TFT as much as I enjoy working on it.

And that’s it for now! We’ll be updating this guide throughout the next week as TFT Patch 9.17b draws closer. Once it goes live, we’ll put the official 9.17b patch notes here and move the 9.18 PBE notes to their own dedicated post.

As always, thanks for reading our TFT coverage! For more, head on over to our Teamfight Tactics hub where you can find all of our coverage for the game!